carers

Objectives: This paper looks to examine the emerging role of carers as essential components in the management of individuals affected by severe mental illness in the context of modern legal and health policy environments. Conclusions: Cultural and legal concepts of confidentiality within the doctor–patient relationship are complex.

Background Menstruation has been shown to be problematic for many women with intellectual disabilities. There has been a greater focus on menstrual suppression or elimination than on help and training to manage menstrual care successfully. Method A cross‐sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in England to investigate the help and training currently given to women with intellectual disabilities. Results Twenty‐nine percent of the women had never been given the opportunity to learn how to manage their own menstrual care.

This article will describe and examine course feedback from a local training initiative, which contributes to the improvements in the health status of people with a learning disability, who have epilepsy. The aim is to analyse how an education programme that focused on epilepsy and its management, together with a borough wide epilepsy protocol developed the skills of the local workforce. This education programme provided a framework for social care staff, enabling them to work both safely and effectively in their support of individuals with learning disabilities that have epilepsy.

The bulk of care in the community is carried out by lay carers. Recent policy initiatives to support them in the United Kingdom are outlined. There remains evidence of significant gaps in support from professional health and social-care workers including community nurses. This paper reports three studies of lay carers: those caring for older people, carers of technology-dependent children, and home-care workers involved in the “direct payments” scheme.

There are 5.7 million carers across the UK, providing care and support to family members, relatives or friends who are ill, disabled or elderly and frail (Office of Populations, Censuses and Surveys, 1995). It is estimated that informal carers save the country £34 billion annually (Nuttall et al, 1993). If carers decided to stop providing informal care, health and social services would be overwhelmed by the increase in workload, many people would suffer and taxes would increase dramatically.

Purpose: This study examined the association among caregiver labor force participation, employees' caregiving activities, and the amount and quality of care received by care recipients. Design and Methods:Telephone interviews were conducted with 478 adults who were employed full time and 705 nonemployed adults who provided care to a family member or friend aged 50 or older, identified through random sampling of California households.

The purpose of this study was to use rigorous systematic review methods to summarise the effectiveness of interventions for elder abuse. Only eight studies met the inclusion criteria. Evidence regarding the recurrence of abuse following intervention was limited, but the interventions for which this outcome was reported failed to reduce, and may even have increased, the likelihood of recurrence. Elder abuse interventions had no significant effect on case resolution and at-risk carer outcomes, and had mixed results regarding professional knowledge and behaviour related to elder abuse.

Purpose: This study examined activity changes in female carers for working-age husbands with mild to moderate stroke. It explored whether carers who reduced or quitted some of their valued activities had more burden and decreased health compared with other carers who continued their valued activities.

In eight short films people in the Department of Health's personal health budgets pilot programme share their experiences so far. They describe in their own words what the process is like, what they spend their money on and how they decided on this. The stories also include the perspectives of family carers and health care professionals. An introduction by Minister of State for Care Services Paul Burstow is also available.